ICC Test Rankings: Joe Root Leapfrogs Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne Into Second Place

England skipper and talismanic batsman, Joe Root, has jumped up two spots in the latest ICC Test rankings after his brilliant 180* in the first innings of the second Test against India at Lord’s.

Root, who started off the series in fifth place before overtaking Virat Kohli, has now reached second place, only behind New Zealand captain, Kane Williamson. He went past the Aussie duo of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne and sits on 893 points, just eight short of Williamson.

Joe Root has had a stellar series against India, having amassed 386 runs in the two Tests played so far. He continues to thrive in the year 2021, being the top scorer among all batsmen. In 10 matches for the English side, Root has stacked up 1277 runs at an average of 67.21.

In this period, he has notched up five centuries. Root has almost scored twice as many runs as the next highest run-scorer, Rohit Sharma, who is also having a good outing this year. Unfortunately for Root, his team hasn’t supported him well enough.

KL Rahul and Babar Azam also jump places in the ICC Test rankings

The centurion and Player of the Match at Lord’s, KL Rahul, has made progress in the rankings. Rahul, whose career-best is eighth place, jumped 19 spots to occupy 37th place in the list. The Karnataka opener wasn’t even in contention to be in the playing XI but an injury to other players lent him an opportunity which he has held onto very tight.

Pakistan skipper, Babar Azam, moved to eighth position after a decent performance in the recently concluded Kingston Test against West Indies. Fawad Alam and Faheem Ashraf moved up four positions each to sit on the 55th and 48th place respectively.

Here are the ICC Top 10 ranked test batsmen as on 18th August 2021:

As for the bowlers, James Anderson gained one spot to reach sixth after his 31st five-wicket haul in Tests in the first innings of the Lord’s Test. Mohammad Siraj, who finished with the best Indian match figures at Lord’s (8/126), jumped 18 places to reach 38th place, one behind Mark Wood who gained five slots to reach 37th.

Here are the ICC Top 10 ranked test bowlers as on 18th August 2021:

Also Read – England vs India 2021: “Let’s Not Write England off Just Yet” – Nasser Hussain

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